Sam Neill was ‘Jurassic Park’s’ underrated secret weapon

The best scene in “Jurassic Park” happens long before the T. rex goes on his bloodsoaked rampage.

It’s when a paleontologist, paleobotanist and mathematician are reduced to wide-eyed children as they witness a living, breathing dinosaur for the first time. The sequence is the essence of movie magic.

Essential to that breathtaking moment, one of director Steven Spielberg’s greatest, was Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor who died Sunday at age 78.

Playing down-to-business Dr. Alan Grant, Neill jumps up in the Jeep and whips off his hat and sunglasses to reveal a twisted glare of madness. The man is in such a state of shock that he appears in physical agony. And then we see what he sees — the majestic Brachiosaurus munching on a tree. 

Says Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond, “Welcome to Jurassic Park!”

Doesn’t it give you chills? Just as much as Spielberg’s clever shots and John Williams’ lush score, Neill’s performance cued our awe, even though the actor was actually forced to pretend that a cherry picker crane on-set was an extinct 60-ton beast.

“Jurassic Park” is remembered for its groundbreaking special effects that ushered in a new dinosaur craze that never let up, and for giving Laura Dern an early major role and the highly meme-able Jeff Goldblum.

But Neill doesn’t get enough credit for his memorable contributions to the classic blockbuster. 

“Jurassic Park,” when you think about it, is a strange movie. There’s a lot of jokes from Goldblum and Wayne Knight, complex science chatter (however bunk it may be) about chromosomes, creaturely wonderment and pulse-racing action. Unlike “Indiana Jones” or “Star Wars” though, the second half also has significant elements of horror. 

Neill had the daunting task of guiding us through all that, which required rugged masculinity, comedy chops, emotional sensitivity and a playful spirit. He had to believably go from hugging a Triceratops to running from a Raptor. He needed to be a likable leading man while playing an emotionally stifled skeptic who publicly dresses down kids.  

That’s harder than it looks, as the wooden main performers in the “Jurassic World” series have repeatedly proven as they’ve ceded the floor to their CGI costars. Neill was utterly perfect in the part.

Yet while he was often called an “everyman,” the actor was more intriguing, earthy and intelligent than your garden variety action hero. That’s why his career was able to be more varied than casual fans realize.     

Neill appeared in some 150 projects over his 55-year-long career, including prestigious films such as “The Piano,” which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, and “The Hunt for Red October.” More recently he had a role on the TV series “Peaky Blinders.” He still has a couple of movies in the can, including “Godzilla x Kong SuperNova,” which will be released posthumously.

But his legacy, and rightfully so, will always be “Jurassic Park,” with its dinos and its dynamic leading man.